In January, 1975, the Narragansett Indian tribe filed suit in federal district court to
regain lands in southern RI which they claimed were illegally taken from them in 1880. In
May, 1976, Paul R. Campbell and Glenn LaFantasie were hired by the RI Attorney General's
office and the law firm of Tillinghast, Collins and Graham as historian for the defense, initiating
research on the tribe which spanned over two years and several states. By the time their work for
the court case was completed, the two historians had collected photocopies of over 9,000
documents dating as far back as 1524. Campbell and LaFantasie's work also provided the
material for papers they co-wrote in 1978 about the Narragansetts, Narragansett Indians Land
Controversies and Narragansett Country; for an undergraduate course which they co-taught at
Providence College in 1977; and for a lecture series with the Rhode Island Historical Society in
the spring of 1978. LaFantasie relied heavily on these materials to prepare annotations for The
Correspondence of Roger Williams, 2 vols. (1988), which he edited for the Rhode Island
Historical Society while serving as Editor of Publications from 1979 to 1985.

In other historical areas, Campbell co-wrote two books with Rhode Island author Patrick
Conley: Providence: A Pictorial History (1982) and Firefighters and Fires in Providence
(1985). Campbell served as Library Director at the Rhode Island Historical Society from 1979 to
1987.

This collection contains many of Campbell and LaFantasie's research notes for the
Narragansett court case. It also includes research on Providence: A Pictorial History, the
Providence Fire Department, and the Cranston Ore Bed. The notes consist mainly of
photocopies of primary and secondary sources, trial documents, handwritten notes, drafts, and
correspondence regarding publishing.

Campbell and LaFantasie donated the Narragansett notes jointly in late 1978 or early
1979, after the completion of the court case but before Campbell's appointment as RIHS library
director. These papers were initially housed in administrative storage at the Aldrich House, and
were not formally accessioned or made available to the public until 1990. The Cranston Ore Bed
material (which was also jointly assembled from research done by Campbell and LaFantasie) was
similarly transferred to the library in 1991. For the remainder of the collection, the accession
information is unclear, but probably is the same.

Restriction note:

Many of the photocopied documents in the Narragansett series were used as documentary
exhibits in the land claim case. Sources for some of these documents can be found either on the
documents themselves, or in the "plaintiff's and defendants' requests for admissions" and the
"index of documentary exhibits" in the trial documents (subseries 2). Researchers can also see
the research grant correspondence in subseries 3 for a listing of locations from which many of the
research notes came. In some cases, however, sources may be unclear or unavailable. In addition,
in cases where copied manuscripts were obtained from institutions other than the Rhode Island
Historical Society, permission to publish can be granted only by the institution which owns the
records. The collection generally should be viewed as a reference collection only.

Subseries 1 - Exhibit material for 1975 land claim trial. The material consists of photocopied
primary and secondary sources, and for the most part is arranged chronologically. Box 3,
folder 2 (1880-1883) includes the 1880 Act presented to the RI General Assembly appointing a
commission to negotiate the purchase of all common tribal lands from the Narragansett Tribe,
along with a list of the 324 Narragansetts approved as claimants in the land purchase by the
Supreme Court.

1524-1683.

Box 1, folder 1. 1524 - 1639.

Box 1, folder 2. 1640 - 1649.

Box 1, folder 3. 1650 - 1655.

Box 1, folder 4. 1650 - 1659.

Box 1, folder 5. 1660 - 1662.

Box 1, folder 6. 1663 - 1664.

Box 1, folder 7. 1665 - 1666.

Box 1, folder 8. 1667 - 1669.

Box 1, folder 9. 1670 - 1674.

Box 1, folder 10. 1675 - 1676.

Box 1, folder 11. 1677 - 1678.

Box 1, folder 12. 1679.

Box 1, folder 13. 1680 - 1683.

1684-1862.

Box 2, folder 1. 1684 - 1686.

Box 2, folder 2. 1687 - 1689.

Box 2, folder 3. 1690 - 1697.

Box 2, folder 4. 1698 - 1699.

Box 2, folder 5. 1700 - 1719.

Box 2, folder 6. 1720 - 1729.

Box 2, folder 7. 1730 - 1745.

Box 2, folder 8. 1746 - 1749.

Box 2, folder 9. 1750 - 1759.

Box 2, folder 10. 1760 - 1764.

Box 2, folder 11. 1765 - 1769.

Box 2, folder 12. 1770 - 1779.

Box 2, folder 13. 1800 - 1824.

Box 2, folder 14. 1825 - 1832.

Box 2, folder 15. 1833 - 1845.

Box 2, folder 16. 1846 - 1850.

Box 2, folder 17. 1851 - 1862.

1864-1976 and other.

Box 3, folder 1. 1864 - 1870.

1871-1879 - no documents during this time period.

Box 3, folder 2. 1880 - 1883. includes the 1880 Act presented to the RI General Assembly
appointing a commission to negotiate the purchase of all common tribal lands from the
Narragansett Tribe, along with a list of the 324 Narragansetts approved as claimants in the land
purchase by the Supreme Court.